How i18n Works For Site Copy.md

How Does The i18n Work in The Site?

Let's take some example code from inside the top navigation bar on the site:

// prettier-ignore
<nav role="navigation">
  <ul>
    <li className="nav-item hide-small"><IntlLink to="/download">{i("nav_download")}</IntlLink></li>
    <li className="nav-item"><IntlLink to="/docs/home"><span>{i("nav_documentation_short")}</span></IntlLink></li>
    <li className="nav-item show-only-large"><IntlLink to="/docs/handbook/intro.html">{i("nav_handbook")}</IntlLink></li>
    <li className="nav-item"><IntlLink to="/community">{i("nav_community")}</IntlLink></li>
    <li className="nav-item show-only-largest"><IntlLink to="/play">{i("nav_playground")}</IntlLink></li>
    <li className="nav-item"><IntlLink to="/tools">{i("nav_tools")}</IntlLink></li>
  </ul>
</nav>

There are two i18n primitives in here:

• IntlLink
• i("nav_download")

IntlLink

An IntlLink is a element, which is effectively an <a>, but that it knows the entire sitemap and the current locale.

This means the link will detect whether there is a version of the page available in the current locale if possible. You just write the English URL.

i("x")

This is React Intl.

There are a few parts which lead up to having an i("x"). Let's go in order:

• A site page which can be internationalized must be wrapped in an Intl component

  This sets up the language copy based in the locale, it uses a dynamic require to the copy/ folder + the locale + .ts. This sets up the outer context.

  In the site, we have this as the default export for i18n'd pages

  export default (props: Props) => (
    <Intl locale={props.pageContext.lang}>
      <Comm {...props} />
    </Intl>
  )

• At the start of the react component for the page, we create an i:

  type Props = {
    data: CommunityPageQuery
    pageContext: any
  }
  
  export const Comm: React.FC<Props> = props => {
    const intl = useIntl()
    const i = createInternational<typeof comCopy>(intl)
    // ...
  }

  The first relevant line is useIntl() which is a standard feature of react-intl.

  The second wraps the result of useIntl into a function which lets you use the types to determine the keys available in for this file.